It first occurred around 1am. Something makes me sit bolt upright in bed. I listen intently. No sounds out of the ordinary at all. The animals are not even stirring about. Oh well, back to sleep I go. 1:22am. Again it happens. Again all is quiet in the house. The female hasn't stirred, even the cat who paces all night is sleeping. What the? I get up and walk downstairs. The dog wakes up and follows me not sure what my problem is. Nothing is out of the ordinary, nothing is going on, save a dog barking in the distance. I open the back door. The dog and I both poke our heads outside simultaneously and look and listen. Nothing but that dog down the street barking as he does all the time anyway. We go back upstairs and back to sleep. 2:00am. This time I am aware that it's a sound that is waking me up. As if I woke up just fast enough to hear the end of it. Now, the cat is stirring and on the ensuing trip she follows me, the dog is at this point ignoring me in favor of sleep. Some watchdog. I let the cat out to the garage and look around down there. Nothing. I go to the front door. All is calm. What is happening here? I retrieve the cat and we head back upstairs where I again lay down. The female is still quite oblivious the goings on. Dear Lord, a bomb going off wouldn't wake her up! This time I go into some sort of half-sleep state where I dream that someone is breaking into the house. When the predictable noise happens again (I am no longer noticing the time) my heart is pounding in my chest. I don't get up this time, instead I just lay there listening. Okay I think, this is happening roughly every half an hour, so I will be awake for the next one. The minutes slip by and the anticipation grows. So does the aggravation at the loss of sleep. The cat is now fully a participant and she stands vigil at my side in bed awaiting the dreaded noise. For the record, the brave watchdog can be heard snoring in the other room.
And then it happens. A chirp, almost like a cricket. A short, chirpy burst. I've heard this sound before! It's the smoke detector, probably with a low battery. I get up yet again and make sure that in fact there is no way the house is on fire. Then I, with full frustration being vented, yank the offender off the wall and rip out the battery. I figure we'll just take our chances the final couple of hours of the night. I walk upstairs, with a mixture of triumph over having found the cause, and trepidation at what the lost sleep will make me feel like in the morning. No, scratch that, it's already the morning! I pass the snoring "watchdog" and rejoin the cat and the oblivious female in bed and finally....go to sleep.